Can some government/political law experts explain to me how it's legal for Kamala to just be made the Democrat nominee without an election?

[KostasKouvalis]

As far as I know this isn't Europe, where each party gets to choose their nominee. Isn't this what primaries are for? So the American people can choose which candidate will represent each party. She was in last place last election, and I guess we had primaries earlier this year, but she didn't receive a single vote. So how can the people in Washington DC just make her the Democratic nominee without holding an election? The politicians in Washington elected her, the American people did not elect her to be the Democrat candidate.

This seems completely illegal to me, but the lack of protests and outrage suggests to me, that I must've slept through this part of government class.

But even on Google, I couldn't find anything explaining how this is legal. It's like, no one is even asking this question.

Can someone who is knowledgeable in how our elections work please explain to me. Because clearly, I am missing something here.

Updates

1 y

So I did manage to find THIS article. The source isn't ideal, but she said it's because Biden dropped out and Kamala was the only Democrat who expressed interest in running, so there was no one else on the ballot.

news.unm.edu/.../q-a-law-professor-addresses-kamala-harriss-unprecedented-presidential-campaign

Updates

1 y

Reading the comments it seems like most people feel she is indeed an illegitimate candidate.

[Anonymous]

Of course she didn't receive a single vote since she wasn't running. No VP runs against the incumbent they are serving under. Eliminating her based on that isn't really logical.

As for legality, it is perfectly legal. We don't have as much of a direct vote as anyone ever thinks. Even in November, you don't truly vote for your candidate. You vote for the group of electors and you hope they vote with the majority of the state. Many states it's law that they must but not all. Faithless electors are absolutely possible. As for delegates, the rules state "Delegates elected to the national convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them". You're only electing delegates and you hope they do what they are supposed to based on the vote. However, since all the delegates are now unable to vote for the candidate from the primary, they're under no legal obligation (moral is for you to decide, but is irrelevant ultimately) to do anything. However, as would be common in a result where no one achieved a majority, a candidate may endorse someone else and it would be typical for their delegates to change their vote for who their candidate endorsed before leaving the race. The RNC says the same thing in the event of a candidate dropping out that they are no longer bound to vote for the previous candidate. In short, both parties have grey area and backup plans for such situations. The parties legally speaking are bound by nothing as we simply elect people to go vote for us and like all politicians we elect, we just hope that they do but we can't make them.

[Guacamole409]

I think about 17 million people voted for Biden, and they voted for nothing. They should’ve just stayed home.
And the millions of dollars from the donors should go back to the donors. It’s not up to Biden to hand it to whoever he wants.


Was and it was pretty chickenshit of Biden to bow out just because he knew he would lose.

[KostasKouvalis]

They VOTED for him though. No one voted for Kamala

[Guacamole409]

Yes, Biden got around 79% of the votes, and Kamala got 0%. Kamala was installed. During her first primary, she was the first one to wash out because nobody wanted her. Now the Democrats of elevator to the top.

[Guacamole409]

I just saw your update. There were at least three other people other than Biden, who were in the primary
One of them should’ve won.

[KostasKouvalis]

I thought the same thing. I knew a professor of Law whose work focuses on implicit bias, criminal justice reform and racial justice and Black community empowerment, was not a reliable source.

[Guacamole409]

Think of it this way; if this was normal it would have happened many more times.

[KostasKouvalis]

Why was it allowed to happened then?

[onedarkcloud]

People of America just learned how devious THE DEMOCRATIC COMMUNIST PARTY OF AMERICA is. A completely useless candidate has pushed ahead without really having any primary vote taken for her. The primary votes taken were for Biden, Harris, not Harris Tampontim So all the people who voted for Biden just had their vote stolen by shifting their votes to Harris without the consent of the voters THE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN FUCKED AGAIN

[KostasKouvalis]

EXACTLY! This sounds so illegal to me. They didn't hold any election to let the American people decide if they want her to be the nominee.

[BarryLiverstone]

https://fox40.com/news/national-and-world-news/harris-officially-wins-democratic-presidential-nomination-heres-how/amp/

[strateguy632]

Something about delegates but it still shows how democrat party trampled the main characteristics of democracy.

[strateguy632]

Especially consider the primitive Israelites in deuteronmy 1, 13 record the people chose leaders and selected who they trusted as judges to get taught.
But democrat party has a way around laws to be primitive.
Harris should be eliminated EXCLUDED ssme as ME kuz i didn't compete!
She got LESS votes zero so eliminated.

[Anonymous]

The people have no right to select a nominee, the primary elections are just a procedure to show the parties who's favored, but the people are not actually "electing" that candidate. The United States is not a democracy, it's a federal republic.

For Kamala to actually be the candidate, the state delegates are going to have to vote for her to be the nominee at the convention, but they won't, at the last minute they're going to vote for Michelle Obama.

[KostasKouvalis]

So basically, everything I've been taught about our election process was wrong

[Opinion Owner]

Well it's all there in the Constitution, so you can read it yourself.

[KostasKouvalis]

So basically voting, at least in the primaries is a waste of time. Why even have primaries then?

[Opinion Owner]

"The primary elections are just a procedure to show the parties who's favored."

[BarryLiverstone]

Delegates already voted

[Opinion Owner]

@BarryLiverstone The delegates don't vote until the convention.

[BarryLiverstone]

Not true. They voted online already

[Opinion Owner]

@BarryLiverstone That was expressing their interest. It's not official until they vote at the convention. Read the party rules.

[BarryLiverstone]

“Under new procedures adopted by the convention’s rules committee in late July, candidates had until Tuesday to declare their intent to seek the nomination and until that night to electronically submit the 300 delegate signatures required to qualify for the roll call vote. According to a DNC statement, Harris submitted signatures from 3,923 delegates, about 84% of the full delegation and 99% of delegates who signed a petition.”

[strateguy632]

I agree very bad, dean philips should be.